Éire 1798 Memorial St. Michan’s Park

Today I used a Sony HX90V which I use because it has GPS and because is small and light enough to fit in my pocket.

It is not often that I get a chance to photograph this as the park is usually full of children and their parents but today the weather was especially bad and getting worse with a major storm expected overnight..

St. Michan’s park was first developed by Dublin Corporation as a park in 1898 and was refurbished by the parks division between 1996-7. Facilities include a toddlers’ play area, a handball alley and seating with associated shrub plantings.

The statue of Éire is the central feature of the park. It is positioned on a raised area of the green with a high pedestal; and dated at the base to 1903. This date puts the installation of the statue at some five years after the park opened. When the site was transformed into a public park the mound had been designed to hold a memorial and the pedestal was installed by at least 1899.

The site was inherently political due to its association with Newgate prison, the walls of which were consciously retained as the outline of the park. Newgate Prison was where many United Irishmen (here commemorated in relief tablets around the base) were incarcerated and this monument was raised to commemorate the centenary of the death of rebel leader, Robert Emmet.

Éire’s demeanour is subdued and downcast, holding a funerary wreath, a wolfhound looks up at her from one side and in the background the nationalist symbol of the high cross is clearly visible. The base of the monument has an inscription in Irish script with reference to the history of the prison. It reads:

Within this park once stood Newgate prisonAssociated in dark and evil days with the doing to death ofConfessors of Irish liberty who gave their lives to vindicateTheir country’s right to National independenceThis memorial is erected to perpetuate their memoryTo honour their motives and to inculcate a grateful reverenceIn Irish minds for sacrifices thus nobly madeFor freedom and to proclaim Ireland’s fidelityTo the principles of the men whose names are heron inscribedIn the belief that these will yet redeem andRegenerate our fatherland for subjection